Family members of a missing five-year-old believed to have been abducted in Alice Springs have spoken to the ABC for the first time, pleading for anyone with information that could help find their “energetic” little girl to come forward.
Sharon Granites was reported missing from the Old Timers town camp in the early hours of Sunday, with police alleging she has been abducted by 47-year-old man Jefferson Lewis, who they are also trying to locate.
Five-year-old Sharon went missing from Alice Springs’ Old Timers town camp. (Supplied: NT Police Force )
Police have been appealing for information from the public to help find the pair, saying they believe some community members are withholding Mr Lewis’ whereabouts, and now family members of the little girl have joined the pleas.
Sitting outside the house in Old Timers town camp where Sharon was allegedly abducted from, her kinship grandfather Robin Japanangka Granites wept and called for her safe return.
Robin Granites says Sharon is “only a little baby” and her family has been “crying, crying” since she went missing. (ABC News: Xavier Martin)
“A very terrible thing, a horrible thing, and we wanted to try and see if we can get her back, but we can’t,” he said.
“[We’ve been] crying, crying, and doing what we meant to be doing, and being out there with our family crying… and that’s not what we want, we want to be going out and searching for her.”
“She’s only a little baby.”
Family members have told the ABC that Sharon is unable to talk and communicates mostly through hand gestures.
Sharon Granites was last seen on Saturday night. (Supplied: Rob Roy)
Her great-uncle Rob Roy, who lives in the remote NT community of Kalkirindji, said he was urging anyone with information to come forward.
He said Sharon and some of her family had visited him not long ago, and described her as “very energetic”.
“She’s one of those little girls who roam around, run around, not fussed about anything,”
he said.
Rob Roy says Sharon is a “very energetic” little girl. (ABC News: Michael Donnelly)
He said he remembered how five-year-old Sharon had sung during her last visit, by babbling along to music.
“I know for sure she’s one of those girls that likes her TikTok or YouTube.
“If you give her a little iPad or phone, she’ll just sit one place and not move because she’s being entertained by what she’s watching.”
“Every night when I sit down I wonder, ‘what would she be doing now, what would she be eating?’”
‘We still have our hopes up’
Bess Nungarrayi Price, a Warlpiri Alice Springs community leader and a member of the little girl’s extended family, said Sharon’s mother and grandmothers were distraught.
Bess Price says Sharon’s family members are calling on Jeffererson Lewis to come foward. (ABC News: Xavier Martin)
“We are hoping, the family’s hoping, that she’s still alive, and hopefully they can return her to her grandmothers, and her mother,” she said.
“We still have our hopes up and we hope that we do find her. The whole family is just traumatised, but we still hope that we can find her and that she’s okay.”
Ms Price, who is also a former NT government child protection minister, said the family was appealing directly to Mr Lewis — a recently released prisoner — to provide them with any information he may have about where Sharon is.
“The family really want the man to be brought in so they can question him as to whether he’s been involved or not,” Ms Nungarrayi Price said.
“It is important that they do, or he surrenders himself to the police or to somebody, and just gives us some information at least as to where the girl might be.
“What the family are saying is we want to ask him, or for him to tell whoever he’s been staying with, if she’s safe and where they can find her, if he has got her.”
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